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| - Before we walked into this museum, a massive plane flew pretty closely overhead. There must be a private airport nearby. It was pretty cool. I was slightly paranoid though because the day before our taxi driver talked about how planes drop weight by releasing some of their black jet fuel before they land and how it hit his windshield and to watch out for it. Eesh.
The museum was $20 a person including the Area 51 exhibit.
It is the National Atomic Testing Museum so it's kind of an entire history of nuclear weapons.
We went into the theater where they simulate the Hood Atomic Bomb Detonation. The guide really builds it up in yer head. "You're sitting on benches just like the ones on the salt flat that day. Yer wearing goggles just like the ones they wore on that salt flat that day. Yer not really on a salt flat just like they were on that salt flat that day."
Well I don't wanna ruin it by telling you what happens next; just have yer minds blown away pun when you see it fer yerselves.
Any who, the exhibit is insanely thorough. It's like there's no end to the amount of shit you can talk about related to atomic bombs. The US gov went fucking ham after we invented A-bombs: we had to test all sorts of cool shit related to nuclear bombs.
It seems they play down pretty significantly, for whatever reason, that there actually were global(?) protests against using Atmoic bombs in the atmosphere. Initially though this led to an entire ban on atomic bombs. Too many people living downwind from the test sites in Nevada were being born deformed and sick.
The ban was kind of weak. It's like buying a new toy and being like alright only I can play wit it. Well Russia wasn't into that, so they kept on testing A-bombs and in the atmosphere. So in order to get along wit Russia we was like "alright dude it's fine if you wanna mess with atomic bombs tbh but like you have to only do underground trust us on this one"(verbatim from a placard there) Anywho, we created the Nuclear testing Limited Ban Treaty and that took care of that; now only everyone can only test nuclear bombs underground.
Again shit I all learned at this museum; fascinating stuff.
The underground testing of nuclear weapons far exceeded my superficial understanding of it; I honestly, up until going to this museum, thought the US gov tested nuclear bombs underground by jus having some poor radioactive schmoe dig a hole in dat dere ground and drop the bomb into it, cover it up and blow that sucker up.
Turns out the testing of nuclear weapons underground is INSANELY sophisticated and difficult and quite a technical marvel.
One of the first things you forget is that they have to measure these bombs somehow; nah, wait, even before that they have to get the bomb into the damn ground first. So they have to drill a huge hole into the Earth and fit it wit a chamber; then they have to lay out sophisticated measuring and wiring systems to figure what happens during the explosion.
An explosion where the critical component of which is like thousands of a second long so good luck measuring that. All while trying to do it super safely.
They tested the effect of nuclear bombs on satellites by putting an entire satellite in basically a lil tube enclosure thing; they then had to hook up to the tube to the underground explosion. Crazy complicated feat of engineering.
Every nuclear test participant - which included entities like the EPA, Boeing, etc - received a sweet custom certificate for their participation. Kennedy OK'd development of a nuclear rocket engine. 'Murica FUCK YEAH. Oh and a nuclear ram jet wtf bro; it worked too barely. Awesome.
Honestly just didn't even remotely think this much sophistication went into testing nuclear bombs.
I thought for sure we'd be spending a good hour or so in there and that's it. We probably ended up being there for almost two hours and we hadn't even hit up the shitty Area 51 exhibit.
The Area 51 exhibit was less than mediocre. I appreciate the effort and the art and whatnot but I jus don't believe in aliens; nuclear-powered triangles and shit what the fuck bro I jus saw that we actually developed nuclear ramjets no need to believe in government conspiracy triangles.
Anywho, the gift shop is amazing. They have some pretty tite shirts and a pretty dope patch. I fucks wit a gift shop tbh. I bought a bomb ass pun Fat Boy pin, and glow-in-the-dark universe-in-the-shape-of-Einstein tshirt, I demo'd the space pens and I bought a magic egg.
They have Trinitite which is apparently some mineral forged from the Atmoic bomb explosions from the Trinity site in Nevada cool.
Anywho don't miss a beat and visit this bastion of good ol' American history in the desert. Do the Area 51 exhibit jus for shits or don't and be lame and save $10; carpe nucleam.
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